Summary
Did the business move this period, and did the advertising pay for itself?
The cards
The whole period's verdict lives here. Read in the right order it takes one pass — direction first, cause second, price third.
Total SalesTotal SalesYour true top line and the anchor for every efficiency metric. · MERMERWhole-business marketing efficiency across every channel.Under 30% is healthy · OrdersOrdersA simple, powerful demand signal; watch its trend. · AOVAOVYour average order size, and a direct lever on revenue. · % Returning Customers% Returning CustomersYour retention pulse and the engine of durable growth.30% or more is healthy · Ad SpendAd SpendRead it next to ROAS and sales; spend only helps if the return holds. · NCPANCPAWhat it costs to win a first-time buyer. · % Discounts% DiscountsHow much of your revenue is given back as markdowns.Under 8% is healthy · Sessions (GA4)Sessions (GA4)The context that makes your conversion rate meaningful. · Conv. RateConv. RateWebsite visits that ended in a purchase. Not the same as Google Ads Conv. Rate, which divides by clicks.3.5% or more is healthy
Read them in three moves
- Did sales move? Total Sales. Nothing else matters until you know the direction.
- Why did it move — more orders, or bigger ones? Orders and AOV. One of the two carries almost all of the change.
- What did that cost? MER, Ad Spend and NCPA, in that order.
Three pairs worth holding together
Orders + AOV. Sales up with orders flat means people spent more each. Sales up with AOV flat means you found more people. Those are two different businesses and two different next moves.
MER + Total Sales. MER is Ad Spend divided by Total Sales, so lower is better. MER climbing while sales sit still is ad efficiency draining before the revenue number shows it.
NCPA + % Returning Customers. Paying more for each new buyer is survivable if they come back. NCPA up while % Returning Customers slips is the expensive version.
Sessions (GA4) and Conv. Rate come from Google Analytics, not Shopify. Both cards disappear when you have all stores selected instead of one.
The charts
The cards tell you the period moved. These tell you the day it moved, and what that day cost.
Find the day the lines split and you have the thing to ask about, instead of a month to explain.
Marketing Efficiency Ratio & Sales
MER as a line, Total Sales as bars, by day.
Scaling well
You sold more and gave up less of it to advertising. This is the shape you want before you raise budgets.
Buying the growth
The extra sales came at a worse price. A decision, not yet a problem — but it stops being a decision if MER keeps climbing.
Trimmed, not grown
You cut spend and efficiency improved. Check Orders held up, or you just shrank.
Paying more for less
Spend is buying fewer sales than it did. Something changed outside the ad account — price, stock, or a competitor.
The hover text on this chart reads MER the other way round, calling a rising MER a good sign.
Read it as lower is better. The MER card's own grading says so, and the formula agrees.
New Customer Cost Per Acquisition (NCPA)
NCPA and % Returning Customer on the same days.
Cheap and sticky
New buyers cost less and old ones keep coming back. Every euro of acquisition is worth more than it was.
Paying to stand still
Retention is fine; the front door got expensive. Usually audience or creative, not the offer.
Cheap, but they leave
You are buying volume that doesn't come back. Cheap acquisition of the wrong customer.
The one to act on
Costlier to win and faster to lose. Adding budget here makes the hole deeper.
Marketing Spend
Stacked bars, one colour per channel: Meta spend and Google Ads spend, plus Amazon spend when Include Amazon is ticked.
- Look at the total height first. That's the money going out that day.
- Then the split. A channel whose share grows across the range is quietly taking the budget.
- Then find the tall day and check it against the same day on Marketing Efficiency Ratio & Sales. A spend spike with no sales bar behind it is the day worth asking about.
Conversion Rate (GA4), Total Sales & AOV
Three lines: conversion rate from Google Analytics, Total Sales and AOV.
- Read conversion rate first. It's the one that says whether the site is doing its job.
- Then Total Sales beside it. Sales up with conversion rate down means you bought traffic, not customers.
- Then AOV. Conversion rate down while AOV rises is often a price change, not a broken page.
This chart only appears when a single store is selected. Without a Google Analytics connection it is replaced by a line telling you to connect GA4 on the Integrations page.
The tables
Here you find the product carrying the period and the market that is being funded by the rest of the business.
Both are one sort away.
Products Overview
One row = one product.
Columns: Product · Prod. Revenue · % △ · % Prod. Revenue · QuantityQuantityThe core volume measure across products. · % △
This is a short table on purpose. Only Prod. Revenue and Quantity carry a % △; the share column has none.
How to scan it
- Sort by Quantity, highest first.
- Look across at % Prod. Revenue.
- The row that matters: high quantity, small share of revenue. Volume that isn't paying for itself.
Then run it a second way. Sort by Prod. Revenue, highest first, and read Quantity beside it. Few units at the top of revenue means one expensive product is carrying the period.
For discounts, cost and margin on the same products, open Shopify → Products. Those columns are not on this table.
The controls above the table all work. Search filters rows by product name. The Export button saves what you are looking at. The view switch on the right turns the table into a bar, line or pie chart, where you pick up to ten products and up to three columns, with Compare against the previous period on by default.
Country Overview
One row = one country. It sits below Products Overview and carries the same controls.
Columns: Country · Total SalesTotal SalesYour true top line and the anchor for every efficiency metric. · % △ · % Total Sales% Total SalesShows how important this segment is to overall revenue. · MERMERWhole-business marketing efficiency across every channel.Under 30% is healthy · % △ · AOVAOVYour average order size, and a direct lever on revenue. · % △
How to scan it
- Sort by Total Sales, highest first. It already opens this way.
- Look across at MER — remember lower is better.
- The row that matters: a large market whose MER sits well above the rest. That is where your advertising is buying the least.
With Include Amazon ticked this table swaps its columns for Total Sales, % Total Sales, % Amazon Sales% Amazon SalesHow much of your business rides on Amazon.30% or more is healthy, MER, ROASROASRevenue earned for every ad dollar spent.4 or more is healthy and Ads Spend — each with a % △ except % Total Sales.
Filters
Set the comparison period before you read a single number. Every % △ on this page is measured against it, and with none set those columns have nothing to say.
Date Range and Previous period sit at the top right.
Filters opens country, customer type and source of order.
Include Amazon is the one that changes the page, not just the numbers. Tick it and the cards become Total Sales, % Amazon Sales% Amazon SalesHow much of your business rides on Amazon.30% or more is healthy, MER, Ad Spend and ROASROASRevenue earned for every ad dollar spent.4 or more is healthy; Marketing Efficiency Ratio & Sales and Marketing Spend both split Amazon out; and the other two charts and Products Overview are not shown at all.
Country Overview is the one table that stays, with the Amazon columns listed above.
Watch out for
MER and NCPA are cross-channel, everything else is Shopify. MER, Ad Spend and NCPA are built from ad platform spend. Total Sales, Orders and AOV are Shopify's. They cover the same days, not the same system.
A range that ends today is still filling. The last point on every chart is a part-day and will look weak until tomorrow.
Google Analytics won't match Shopify. Sessions (GA4) and Conv. Rate are counted by GA4, on GA4's rules. Expect a gap and don't spend the afternoon reconciling it.
All stores selected is a smaller page. The GA4 cards and the Conversion Rate (GA4), Total Sales & AOV chart drop out, because that data is per store.
Do this first
Set a comparison period, then read Total Sales, Orders and MER in that order. If MER moved more than sales did, open Marketing Spend and find the channel that changed.
See yoursYour last period against the one before it, on one screen.
Open Summary →